:: ::--:-:: r' .;: ..... . .... :::' n+1 THE NEW YORKER :::: " , ,... .: tt,1 1 , ::@: i:,: ;..-: "':""' 11f:: ,ÿ:' ,t} wi '. ._,. <, '. ::::::,.,, i ;;;: J:!? !'; ::' i{ ::;i0 . i ) &;,:)0':\.::::: k. : l" ; { %"'1 :.j; ..,:'>>.f"": * , ':k '." . i '" :::: ' ,-: .'& ::: , ::ø- :' _'" '......'1. <:_ ;::, 'I( :),}(. I :, * ::;;t@;))! '.,.,. .' -':,,:"::; ':" " i 1!;;);: ':".,:--.. t,:: - .. . #. :.:::,;.,i': , ::-:': "" ':".: ... .. ::: :.>: ,:. ...... , @'.:: . ,; ;> . :::%;:'. F,;t.,,oj , "'4 : 1!t;::, . 7;; , '">""" 31 ":-t:::;:"::,,::.-: t': II . :;' :,:": ', ';::::,, ....., ." --:.::... . , ,: -: : ., 1 fÞf .. .":.,:.- ,: ,:!Ii<. : ; Jj / : ;": \ :: :;"..., , ÿ ,.... 'Jr)fff.j t; {;, w; : iXr.." .. ;:'.::;1:'::: ,.,.._-:%::f ,:.I : rJ:/' t?X :--: fi\ . ' ,}.:;, ;r:}::'"j ".::'..,., ":::".;: : : '.:." .. ',..' >' "W hat makes me n1addest is when he calls me his 'worthy opponent.' " room' in aNew York rooming house. His hours there were his only hours of leisure, for, of course, when he visited at the castle, for weekends, holidays, and vacations, he was working, and working hard, on his new world. The old lady, her son, and many of their friends, most of them old or lonely peo- ple, soon became his champions, de- fending him so earnestly to anyone who claimed to know about his humble origins that he sometimes appeared to be embarrassed by their protestations. This modesty made them even more certain of his great nobility and of his fine, del- icate nature. N esti now even began to resemble a decàyed nobleman and to develop habits of grandeur; he seldom had any cash in his pocket and he borrowed moner free- ly without the sligh test sign of embar- rassment or the vaguest intention of repaying it, and when speaking Italian he affected a strong French accent. Pancho and his other former friends stil1 persecuted him from afar by speak- . . ing of him as plain Giovanni N esti and by trying to be friendly with him, but he snubbed them and they found it impossi- ble to break through the ramparts of what had now become almost a fortress, defended for Count Nesti by his faithful American friends. For a few months, all went well, but then, alas, the war broke out, and Nesti found himself put on ice, together with his title and his palace, while all the at- tentions of the rich old lady, her son, and her many friends went to Bundles for Britain. Nineteen-forty was a hard year for him, a year of poverty, of fears, of worries. He got in touéh with Pan- cho and was generously forgiven for his defection, earned a little money here and there, and weighed the possibility of going back to his family in Italy. His old mother, who lived in the sùburb of San F rediano, almost, if not quite, in the slums, wrote him that she needed help. She said that she and her four daughters, and the husband and five children of one of them, were all living together and were now feeling the pinch of ris- ing prices, and that although the three unmarried- daughters and the son-in- law were employed, their combined ef- forts were far from sufficient to meet the daily eeds of the big household. (One of the daughters was a school- teacher, one a typist, and one a piano teacher. The fourth took care of her five children and helped her mother keep house.) N esti though t hard in those days. Re- turning to Italy meant being caught in the Italian Army and going to war. He decided to stay In New York. Luckily for him, he was sent to an internment camp as an enemy alien suspected of im- portant connections, and this brought all his powerful friends back to him. The old lady and her son were indig- nant. They vouched for him; they pestered everyone in Washington and N ew York, and finally got him re- leased. They found him a good job and were so generous, so noble, to him that he could afford less than ever to let